US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, said that the US Navy is “collapsing” and is no longer able to perform its duties as required due to the deterioration of production, maintenance and repair operations of warships, and the extension of its deployment.
He considered that the solution is for the United States to seek help from its allies in Japan and South Korea to help it overcome this situation.
In an article he wrote for the Washington Post published Tuesday under the title “The Navy is Collapsing, and We Need Help from Our Allies to Fix Our Ships,” Emanuel said that “since the Taiwan Strait crisis in 1996, China’s economic and military power has grown, and it now has the world’s largest navy and the world’s largest shipbuilding industry, and it is flexing its muscles.”
He pointed out that “at the same time, and over the same period, chronic maintenance and repair delays, cost overruns, extended voyages, and construction backlogs have atrophied the US fleet and broken the naval industrial base.”
“The challenge is daunting,” Emanuel said, noting that “for example, most recently, the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer spent two years out of service for $200 million in repairs, only to then face ongoing (and costly) engineering problems.
The necessary repairs left Boxer and 1,200 Marines unable to assist a sister ship, the USS Bataan, which was protecting ships from Houthi missile and drone attacks off the coast of Yemen. “
The extended deployment has pushed Bataan and her crew to the limit,” he added. “Bataan and its crew of more than 1,200 have spent eight months at sea, both in the Strait of Hormuz and later in the Red Sea.”
